Next on the name-change agenda: San Jose Island

CORPUS CHRISTI - Changing the name of Corpus Christi Beach back to North Beach corrects a mistake made in 1959. Most people never accepted the change; they always called it North Beach. There is another name change in the region that should be reconsidered. In 1973, St. Joseph's Island was changed to San Jose.

This story started with Sid Richardson, the Fort Worth wildcatter who amassed an immense fortune and bought himself an island. Richardson's great wealth came from the discovery in the 1930s of the Keystone Field in West Texas followed by the discovery of the Eola field in Louisiana. He died in 1959 on the island he owned — St. Joseph's. When he died, Richardson was the second richest man in Texas, behind H.L. Hunt and a bit ahead of his friend Clint W. Murchison.

Richardson and Murchison grew up in Athens, Texas, became friends and later in life business partners. It was said that hardly a day passed that the two didn't talk to each other on the phone, to gossip and make deals. In one deal, they purchased 800,000 shares of the New York Central Railroad. When a reporter asked Richardson about buying the railroad stock, he said, "I do not like publicity. I bought it for an investment. A man is getting in a hell of a shape if he can't buy something without people wanting to know what he's doing."

Richardson, a Democrat, was a friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Once on a train, Richardson met Dwight D. Eisenhower and they became fast friends. Richardson tried to persuade Eisenhower to run for president as a Democrat, but when Eisenhower decided to run as a Republican, Richardson broke his lifelong Democratic ties to support him.

But we're drifting away from the island. There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, about Richardson's decision to buy St. Joseph's Island. His friend Murchison bought most of Matagorda Island. (It was Clint Murchison's son who once owned the Dallas Cowboys.) Richardson was visiting Murchison on Matagorda when Murchison teased him — "Sid, why don't you quit sponging off me and buy your own island."

In 1936, Richardson bought the 17-mile-long, five-mile-wide St. Joseph's Island between Mustang and Matagorda islands. Long operated as a cattle ranch, the island had been owned by the Richard H. Wood family. The Woods sold it in 1922 and it went through several owners before Richardson bought it.

After buying the island, Richardson needed to build a house on it. He asked Murchison how much he spent on his Matagorda home. Murchison said, "About $35,000." He was pulling his friend's leg; he probably spent that much on the glass alone. But Richardson was determined to build his own island home for $35,000. He hired his nephew, Perry Bass, a young geologist, to build him a resort home. He finally went back to Murchison and said, "How much did you say you spent on this house?"

"Oh, $35,000 or so," Murchison lied.

"Well," said Richardson, "Mine will cost a little more. I may have to spent about $75,000."

When it was finished, Murchison visited his friend's new place and looking over the impressive lodge home, with its wrought-iron staircase, he knew Richardson had spent at least $200,000 on it.

Richardson ran 2,000 head of cattle on the island, kept a hunting reserve, and built a landing strip for important visitors. Dwight Eisenhower came to go duck-hunting in 1951 just before he ran for president.

Sid Richardson died on St. Joseph's on Sept. 30, 1959. He was 68 and had suffered an apparent heart attack. Richardson, a bachelor all his life, left $2.8 million to each of Perry Bass's four sons. The rest of his $105 million estate went to the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Perry Bass inherited the island.

After Richardson's death, Perry Bass began the effort to change the name from St. Joseph's to San Jose. Bass thought San Jose sounded more beautiful than St. Joseph's, which was sometimes shortened to St. Joe, and there was some historical validity to changing the name. Bass could point to an old Mexican land grant of 1834 and some ancient Spanish maps that identified it as Isla de San Jose.

On the other hand, for more than a century the name had been Anglicized by English-speaking residents, who settled on the island before the Texas Revolution. They called it St. Joseph's. When Zachary Taylor's troops landed there in 1845 and planted the first American flag to fly over Texas soil, they called it St. Joseph's.

The island's decline began with the Civil War. The community at the south end, across the pass from today's Port Aransas, was called "Aransas." It was a settlement of bar pilots, lightermen and island ranchers. The demise of Aransas began when the Union blockade created havoc with coastal commerce. Even worse were attacks by shore parties from the blockading ships. In one attack in February 1862, federal troops burned much of the town, including homes, warehouses and wharves. After the war, attempts to revive the settlement failed and St. Joseph's lost its population.

The name was officially changed on Jan. 10, 1973. Judge John H. Miller of the 36th District Court signed an order designating the island as San Jose. A statute passed by the Legislature authorized the change. While some people adapted to the change and began to call it San Jose, others, especially descendants of the early settlers on the island, continued to call it St. Joseph's. It goes by both names today.

Changing longtime historical names like St. Joseph's, I believe, disrespects the past and the people who came before us. For more than 140 years — from the early 1830s until 1973 — it was called St. Joseph's by the people who lived there and by the coastal residents nearby. Balanced against that weight of usage were a few old maps that identify it as Isla de San Jose and the political clout of the late Perry Bass, who died in 2006. I don't know what the process would be. I don't know how it could be done. But San Jose should be changed back to St. Joseph's Island.